Michael Gustavson "Eclipse 18" Raku Ceramic, Abstract Crescent Sculpture in Sage, Teal and Navy, Bay Area California Art, Statement Artwork, 2025

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This crescent stands taller and rounder than a simple wedge, with a navy cap that curves down into layered sage, … Read more This crescent stands taller and rounder than a simple wedge, with a navy cap that curves down into layered sage, teal and olive planes. Near the top a vivid orange circle sits beside a red one, and a pale gold patch with dark veins gives the middle of the front a mineral quality. A fine web of crackle covers parts of the teal, so the surface changes from glossy to matte as the eye moves. The piece rests on a deep navy base that echoes the dark shoulder. Gustavson's surfaces often carry passages of controlled dripping and loose movement, and the soft edges between the greens show that hand. The reverse is steel blue with a rough texture.

A confident curve for a console, a shelf or a side table, it sits well among books, plants and low bowls. The sage and navy blend with gray-green walls, natural linen and light oak, and the orange circle adds a small, warm flash. In a quiet room it can stand alone on a pedestal and read as a quiet object.

Raku-fired glazed ceramic, 12 x 18.5 x 9 in (30.5 x 47.0 x 22.9 cm).

Gustavson fires his work in raku, the traditional Japanese process, which he has adapted over decades into his own method. For his large pieces he does not lift them from the kiln into combustible material; instead they stay in the kiln while pine needles are introduced at lower temperatures to create the reduction atmosphere. Layered glazes, crackle, drips and fine drawn lines build luminous color, and he treats every form as a three-dimensional canvas.

Michael Gustavson is a ceramic artist based in Murphys, California, who has worked in clay for more than four decades. He earned his MFA from San Jose State University in 1980 and describes himself as a painter-sculptor, treating each form as a three-dimensional canvas and glaze as his paint. His work is held in private and public collections worldwide, including IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Seagate, Cranbrook Museum and Eastman Kodak.

Building on the traditional Japanese process of raku, he developed his own firing approach, leaving large pieces in the kiln and introducing pine needles at lower temperatures to create reduction. The method allows larger scale and unusually vivid color. His wheel-thrown, hand-stretched vessels suggest the figure in motion, his wall reliefs use fragmented slabs and negative space, and recent outdoor sculptures and benches carry his surfaces into tectonic forms, with nods to Miró, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Pollock. See less